My Best Friend : (6)Dedicated to my late Bhagne-cum-friend, Honorable District Magistrate & Session Judge, Shubhra Shankar Bhatta.
23.08.24
Concluding Part of “My Best Friend”:
Subho and I must have watched “Pyar Jhukta Nahin” ( Love Doesn’t Bow Down) starring Mithun Chakraborty and Padmini Kolhapuri not less than five times. We last watched it at Priya Cinema. Goes without saying that both of us were impressed beyond expression by the movie. It was a family movie and Mithun was turning out to be Bengal’s heartthrob. We liked him paired with Padmini Kolhapuri.
Another reason we liked the movie was its music. One score by Shabir Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar readily comes to mind:
Pyar jise ho jaye unhe
Kuchh aur nazar kab aata hain
Kab aata hain?
Tumse milkar na jane kiu
Aur bhi kuchh yaad ata hain…. ( When does one love-smitten notice anything else? Meeting you, know not why, something else keeps coming to mind.)
My wife woke me up in the wee hours of the 4th of August. She received a call from Kakolidi, my sister-in-law, telling her that SHUBHO WAS NO MORE! Kakolidi was not sure about the authenticity of the news and thought my brother, her husband, Sadhanda, having been awakened from his sleep, must have heard the news from Sucheta, Shubho’s younger daughter, incorrectly.
I called Sucheta a little later. The news was true. Shubho breathed his last on his way to Peerless Hospital.
Jaya, crying, informed all my relatives. Sis was besides herself when Pupu broke the news to her:
“Orey, Buri, tora amake ki khabor shonali?” (What news have you all passed on?)
We left for Shubho’s house soon afterwards. We took a Metro to Sahid Khudiram Station and as we were on our way to Sadhanda’s first, it started pouring down. We met Kakai before taking an auto to Shubho’s.
No sooner had we entered Shubho’s room, Rita, Shubho’s widow, broke into a wail, pointing to Jaya :
“Ogo, tomar darling eshechhe, tumi uthbe na?” (Dearest, your ‘darling’ is here. Won’t you get up?)
I looked at my bhagne sprawled on the bed, his hands folded on his chest. But for the cotton in his nosestrils, no one could say that he wasn’t asleep. He just seemed to have slipped from light to deep sleep. Inert, he had a very peaceful look on his face.
Rita kept telling the onlookers how it all happened :
“O annya diner maton suye porechhilo. Majh ratre okey narachara korte dekhe, bhoy peye chhilam. Or dike takiye dekhi, or thotta kirakam pule gyechhe. Taratari pasher ghar theke Sucheta ke daklam. O eshe, Subhor jiber takai ekta sarbet tablet dilo…
Oi somoy uthe O bathroom giyechhilo. Bathroom theke beriye, Or shash-kasto dekhe, Sucheta Ani-( Sucheta’s husband) ke khabor dilo. Ambulance call korlo. Kintu haspatal jabar pathei, Shubho kasto hochhhilo bole, musk ta shariye diyei, Sar kole matha diye hele porlo. Haspatal jabar pathei sab shesh….!”
(
I couldn’t stay in the room for long. Muna had been telling me about Shubho being feverish for the whole of the last week. Muna doesn’t force others anymore for the sake of her own self-respect. Otherwise, she would have asked me to call Shubha to enquire after his health. I had called him once earlier. Shubho, as social as always, called me back within no time to tell me that he was all right.
I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams that his end was nearing! I should have though when he called me regarding Sucheta’s marriage registration.
“Bappa, tora sabai ashis kintu. Ei amar shesh kaaj.” (You all must come. This is my last duty.)
Once the decision to create Shubho at Garia crematorium was taken, Sadhanda and I walked all the way from Shubho’s to the cremation ground beside the hospital. Sadhanda told me that the boundaries of the adjacent hospital had been reduced for the expansion of the crematorium. I kept telling Sadhanda to be careful. He is over 70 now and any of the cars coming from behind, could have injured him badly.
I also felt envious of my brother. My late bro, Khokonda, in the twilight of his life, used to go to his house frequently. Nothing wrong with that. They were brothers, after all. Sadhanda’s family and Shubho’s came to be very close in the last couple of years since Subho played a very vital role in the sale of Kakolidi’s ancestral home, opposite ours, at Deblane.
By the time we reached the shamshan, we found Kakolidi with Mumpi and Siddarth waiting there. Soon, one by one all our relatives, started turning up. The heath carrying Shubho’s dead body, the first one to arrive, was placed near the electric chulli. The priest asked us to remove the wreaths and flower garlands. My bhagne’s last rites were performed by his beloved daughters. One couldn’t have asked for a better leave! His end was as swift as it was sudden.
Shubho was a family man and loved his wife and daughters till his dying breath.
While Shubho’s body was waiting in the queue, someone, I don’t know who he was, asked me not to leave his dead body, untouched. I just sat beside the body and placed my hand over his right knee.
I had just one thought going through my mind. Shubho loved me but there was not much I could do for this Bhagne-cum-friend of mine. Life, I guess, is like that. While some people can do all that they want for the people they love, there are others not so fortunate.
While his body was still inside the chulli, I took my leave of Sweta and Sucheta. On the way back, we, my wife and I, dropped in Sadhanda’s. The simple lunch cooked by Kakai, consisting of egg curry and fish curry proved just what we needed at that time.
The return journey to Dum Dum was poignant and speechless. I knew that I had lost someone dear to me but the weight of the loss was yet to sink in. As the upcoming days begin to unfold, we’ll all realise what an irreplaceable loss has been incurred.
Our only consolation lies in the knowledge that Shubho can’t stay far away from us. Good-bye, dear Bhagne, stay happy wherever you be. May your soul find utter joy and rest in absolute bliss and peace.
Kono rate mone kigo porbe?
Bathya hoye akhi jwal jhorbe,
Batas akuul habe tomar nisas tuku peye,
Amar nayan duti, shudhui tomare chahe
Byather badole jai chheye ….
The end
